


Future You Can Wait

by fffan201



Category: Take That (Band)
Genre: Action, Crime, Gen, Police
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-10
Updated: 2017-12-17
Packaged: 2018-12-26 01:36:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 14
Words: 19,433
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12048609
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fffan201/pseuds/fffan201
Summary: The guys of TAKE THAT in this story are not musicians, as we love them, but all policemen and one day get a case on the table, which is really in itself. On top of that, one of them is number one as a suspect.





	1. Out Of Body Experience

**24.10.20XX - London - 10:03 hrs**

On this very cold Monday morning, when the migrating birds had already moved southward to escape the ever colder times, the gray and heavy clouds swept all over the country and brought with them an incessant continual rain for the surrounding villages. It had been raining for hours and an end was still far from in sight. The weather was simply said... shit. The new week could not start crappy. On such a desolate day, one would prefer to stay in bed and hide from this miserable everyday life. Do nothing. Just make a lazy day. 

 

This was also the thought of the Chief of Criminal Police, Gary Barlow. When he awoke from a bad dream this morning, his alarm clock was already screaming at last. However, it still took a while before Gary finally realized that he was back in the here and now. He hurriedly reached for this inhuman invention to silence it more than urgently. Groaning, he dropped back into the pillow and ran a hand through his slightly sweaty face. Although he did not want to allow it in the least, he was in danger of falling asleep next time. He was already on his way there, when Gary then suddenly started up and immediately moved into a sitting position.  
A quick glance at the clock told him it was already after ten in the morning.

_Crap_

Now he had slept more than thoroughly, and even while his alarm clock had already hunted him out of bed for hours. This made him really stupid. How was it possible that he had not even heard this? If this nightmare had not been, Gary would definitely still sleep, and then guaranteed until the noon hour. Such a nightmare also had something useful. ...Of course, up to the content of the dream itself.

With more than just wobbly legs, Gary finally stood up, but then he fell back on the bed. Gary felt a lot of broken on the wheel and had obvious difficulties getting on his legs. What the hell was going wrong with him today?  


The nightmare. 

Failing to hear the alarm clock. 

The obvious problems, with getting up. 

Something was wrong. He felt that. But most likely it was that he just had a bad day. It couldn’t be otherwise. With the thought that it couldn’t get any worse, he dared to try again and hoped that the power of gravity would not again demand a post-sacrifice. Gary had already counted on the fact that he soon found himself on the bed. Surprisingly, his stand was stable this time and so he could finally go to the bathroom to make himself something fresh, to put on and finally to the presidency.


	2. Trouble With Me

**Presidium - 9:18 hrs**

"Where‘s Gary? He‘s otherwise the punctuality in person." Commissioner Mark Owen began to think about his colleague.  
"He's coming. We should just enjoy this heavenly rest. After all, it doesn’t happen often." Robbie Williams, the Chief of Criminal Police, was optimistic.  
"Now you're right again." Mark agreed with him on this point, leaning back in his chair as Robbie had already done.

To start the day with a good friend at the side and a hot cup of coffee in hand had already something. Particularly also if her topics did not go sometimes around her work decisive for everyday life. They then talked about things that really moved you. ...Men's affairs.

 

But after an hour, this heavenly silence was disturbed when suddenly the door flew open and someone came rushing to the ground. Right now, Robbie and Mark just got up and realized more than surprisingly that this person was not Gary. It was their common colleague. Commissioner Jason Orange.

"Is something not right or did you have too much coffee this morning?" Robbie asked immediately if he had too much caffeine intus or even more with a real problem.  
"Where‘s Gary?" Jason wanted to know at once.  
"Not here yet. ...But what's the matter?" Was the preliminary response from Robbie.  
"We have a problem!"  
"And that would be?" Mark was now curious.  
"There was a burglary in Johnsons' jewelers!"  
"A new case? ...And where‘s the problem now?" Robbie showed interest and wanted to know what the problem was.

Since Jason holds a videocassette in his hand, he just put it in an appropriate video recorder and thus the illustrated material for him speaks. At a certain point, Jason let the picture freeze, so everyone could see where the real problem lay. Robbie and Mark couldn’t believe what they saw. It had to be a bad joke.

"But someone must have allowed a very bad joke. This video cannot possibly be real." Robbie finally said their thoughts out loud.  
"I've already checked it several times. …It’s real."

 

"What is real?" Suddenly asked a familiar voice from the background.

From the reflex, Jason turned the band off and looked, as well as Robbie and Mark, over to that said voice. It was the already missing Gary.

"Gary, where have you been?" Robbie asked.  
"Where should I’ve been? At home, in my bed. ...To my regret I have overslept thoroughly I'm sorry." The answer came promptly and apologized for the fact that he was only here now.

With these words he took off his jacket, hung it on the clothes rack and then sat down at his desk. He noticed how the others looked at him strangely.

"What is? Why are you staring at me like this? I’ve really overslept." Gary could no longer bear their eyes and felt that he had to justify himself for his delay.

Because of this rather unpleasant situation, his colleagues simply didn’t know how and where they were supposed to start, and from there, the three of them let it go, by looking at him with an icy silence and a certain disbelief in his eyes.

My God, what should that be? Everyone is overslept sometimes. Yes, even a Gary Barlow. That was not a long-term goal. Why then, did the others make such a great wind about it? Couldn’t even be human?

But while these so-called friends continued to look at him, he wondered why he had not reported himself sick for today. After that last night, of which he still felt slightly veined, it would certainly have been better. As these gazes also gradually deprived him of his nerves, Gary got up from his desk again, leaving the room just as fast as he had entered.

"Then I will be the best to leave. I feel no inclination for something like that now really and am able on it I can also renounce very well. After this night, it had been a mistake to come here. I should’ve stayed better in bed." Gary said that this had been more than a mistake to go to work at all.

So he grabbed his jacket and was about to go home until Jason suddenly broke his icy silence. 

"Where were you two and three o'clock?"  
Whereupon Gary could only stand in the doorway, slowly turning over this one question, turned around in astonishment and at the same time slightly disapprovingly and in the typical Gary manner replied: "What is the stupid question? I was hungry and I just took something to eat."  
"We're not talking about yesterday's noon, but from today's night." Mark explained to him about the exact time.  
"I was there where every other sensible person should be at this time. Sleeping in bed."  
"Are you sure?" Jason asked.  
"Yes, damn. What is the whole question? Is this supposed to be an interrogation, or what?"

 

Instead of giving him an answer, Jason played the video tape for him. When the said spot came back, Jason let it freeze again. Gary narrowed her eyes more to make sure what he saw. He just couldn’t believe it and now he knew why his colleagues were acting so strange. The man on the video screen looked exactly like him. Wait a moment, that meant ...!

"You don’t want to seriously convince me that this guy is supposed to be me?" Gary asked, immediately angry, and since he didn’t even get the slightest reply from his colleagues, he felt more confident than anything, "Ah, all right. I understand that now. Thanks for your confidence!"  
"Gary, that has nothing to do with it now! We would want to believe you. Really. ...But you're definitely there!" Mark finally interrupted.  
"A question, do you really credit me with something like that? Hello. I'm a goddamn cop and know what is right and wrong!" Gary was more and more excited.  
"Don’t get so upset now. This doesn’t bring a lot. You just have to keep calm and wait and see what happens." Robbie tried to calm him.  
"To keep calm and wait until what happens? On what then please? A murder? No thanks, on it I can renounce. ...Now that was really a building up of you. Thank you Rob!" Gary was now sarcastic.

Meanwhile, Gary had simply dropped his jacket to the ground and ran like a tiger in a cage that was far too small. At some point, he sat down in front of his office table and pulled his legs closer to his upper body. He leaned his elbows on his knees and reached for his head.

"Is everything okay with you?" Jason finally asked.  
"Do I really have to answer now?"  
"Sorry." Jason said, raising his hands.  
"Please leave me alone. ...I must think." Asked Gary.

At the moment, he really had no nerve to answer all the questions on which he himself didn’t even know what to say. No matter what he would say, nothing would change and in the end he could make everything worse than it already was. Gary was in disagreement with himself. Although he knew that he had nothing to blame, there was some doubt. What if he really did? The whole thing looked like a nightmare that had come true. He also noted frighteningly that his previous nightmare coincided in many respects. For this reason, Gary asked himself if that meant something or was more an unfortunate coincidence.

 

While Gary was sitting there, thinking about what to do, Robbie, Mark and Jason were standing together, thinking about what to do with Gary. They wanted to believe him, but the video clearly showed him and it was already found out that it was genuine and no fake. The video was already enough as evidence, but if you also find the prey with him, it does not look exactly rosy for Gary.

Robbie looked over to his longtime colleague and made his own thoughts about it: " _Oh Gaz. In what a shit you have got there now again? Please tell me now that you haven’t done this. You know I would like to believe you, but the video proves more than clearly that you are the perpetrator. ...I hope very much for you that everything is explained as quickly as possible and that it is only a bad joke. _"__

____

With these thoughts, Robbie stepped to the water dispenser, filled a mug of water and passed it on to Gary. Without a hint of gratitude, he accepted it and drank a small sip of it.  
Shortly after, the service manager Nigel Martin-Smith entered the room and built up without a word of warning directly before Gary. He glanced down at Gary, who was pestering. But by his outward appearance, the good man seemed to be a dangerous one pit bull and could be loud at any time.

"What kind of action should this have been, Barlow? Did you want to put yourselves to the test and look at how far you can go? Did you think you were going to be unpunished just because they were a cop?" He wanted to know about the background of this act, emphasizing Barlow with every single syllable.

But Gary didn’t even react in the least and seemed to just ignore him.

"Barlow. I'm talking to you." Gary's counterpart was now really loud and when the man was finally excited by looking up at him, he continued the same volume, "How do you get into Johnsons jeweler's shop and go with everything, including the cash?"  
Without thinking too much about what he was doing, Gary was already on his two legs and made the mistake of being loud: "Have you ever thought about it, I'm not that guy?"

On this very scanty statement, he pointed toward the video recorder, which still held his frozen image. At the very least the director of the service did him the favor by looking at the picture somewhat more closely.

"This are unequivocal you, Barlow. This looks like every child ...and now I want to have a response from you and you should be better in your tone."

To get something back down, Gary ran one hand through his face, breathed a moment, and tried to get a little rest in his voice.

"I ...I'm not going anywhere. Except in my bed maybe, where I woke up half an hour ago."  
"Ah. Half an hour ago. Then you came too late?"  
"I overslept. That can happen every time. Cannot I be human?"  
"Not when they get into any jewelers at night, they screw up this down to the smallest clunker and then still film."  
"Bloody hell. I'm not going anywhere to steal a few valuable chains and stuff like that. I don’t even know who this guy is. As I said, I lay at home in my bed and I slept peacefully." Gary slowly and surely lost his self-control.  
"Can you testify it?"  
"I don’t live in a container where Big Brother throws me more than just a glance over my shoulder to see what I'm doing."  
"Because they obviously don’t have an alibi, I will definitely get a house search and as long as they cannot prove the least, you are suspended from the service until further notice!" The aggressive man announced that he would take further steps against Gary becomes.

In response to these words, he immediately disappeared again to put these threats into action and slammed the door behind him.

 

No sooner had this Martin Smith disappeared, leaving Gary to hang his head for a few seconds, only to be able to throw the water cup, which he still held in his hand, with a loud "damn!". More than just desperate, Gary went back to the ground, taking the same position he had already held.

"Why doesn’t anyone believe me?" Gary asked softly.  
"Gaz, you know how that is. We all have to keep the attitude. ...And especially you." Jason pointed out.  
"Yes. You must not lose your nerves now. Just behave inconspicuously and then it will be again." Mark gave a well-meaning advice.  
"You were also easy to talk. What should I do if I find the booty in my house?"  
"You said yourself that you weren’t. ...Then you have nothing to fear." Robbie finally said.  
"You don’t understand that."  
"Then clear up me just." was Robbie's demand.

Gary looked up at him, just wanted to start talking about his nightmare, but he made a pullback. He couldn’t. To a sound like that after a ridiculous excuse ...and to some it was somehow unbelievable. The others probably would only laugh at him and he could do without. His position was already tricky enough.  
Finally he got up, grabbed his jacket again, and left the office.

"Hey. So wait a minute. Where are you going?" Mark shouted after him.  
"I've got to get out of here. I need fresh air urgently." Gary replied with a weak voice.

 

And he really needed that and as soon as possible. Gary had somehow felt that the air was missing. It was as if a sling had been laid around his neck, which slowly but surely tightened more and more. The whole excitement really didn’t do him any good. How gladly would he now go to the wire-cutter, who wanted to subordinate him to this robbery. But unfortunately he also knew that this wasn’t possible. He would probably pull the snare himself. Apart from that, he did not even have the slightest idea who was behind it. It was easy to the mouse milking.  
" _Now do not get so upset. That does not take much. You just have to keep quiet and wait and see what happens. ___  
" Suddenly he heard Robbie's voice in his head.  
This was easier said than done. Should he look so calmly as someone wanted to get rid of him? That was not exactly easy for Gary, yet he knew that Robbie was right. He had to get under control again and wait and see what happens. Perhaps the whole thing still cleared up as a silly joke.  
…Hopefully.


	3. Have A Little Patience

**Office Williams & Barlow - 10:53 hrs ******

Robbie, Mark and Jason could look to her common friend and colleagues only questioningly behind. What was wrong with him? That he was perfectly and properly out of his way, they couldn’t take amiss him sometimes in the least. Still, they had to wonder about him. His attitude toward them was anything but typical of him. To a certain point, they didn’t even recognize Gary. From his reaction, there was something wrong. Why else had he run away? Did it occur to him that he might have something to do with the matter? If so, how far was he involved?

They didn’t know, and so they had no choice but to go to the ground.

"What about the video? You said it was real. But it could not be that there is still something else. I mean a hint that we can rule out it was Gary." Robbie said loudly.  
"You can look at it a hundred times, but I have not discovered anything on the band at all." Jason said at the same time that there was nothing suspicious on the band that could prove Gary's innocence.  
"How many times have you seen it?" Mark asked.  
"Um, five times! The last two times from just now with included." Was the honest answer of Jason.  
"Well, just three times. ...This is once again typical Jay. Instead of doing the right police work, you'd rather go with Howard on the road and hope that something great happens." Mark commented.  
„And? I cannot simply sit around quietly and wait to what happens. That's why I've become a cop. A job where I am demanded not only mentally, but also purely physically seen.“  
"Well, if that is so, you can now accept the spiritual challenge by dealing with the content of the video."  
"No thanks. No need. You can do both. ...I'll go to Johnson’s first maybe the guys from the forensics have already found something." Jason hoped that the colleagues of the securing of evidence had already discovered something and wanted to push from this more than annoying work.  
"All right then. Do what you think is right and we both will thoroughly clear the video. Maybe we'll find something you haven’t seen. ...Four eyes now look more, as usual." Robbie Jason finally let him know with a nod that he had his will.

 

This was the moment to go to work to prove Gary's innocence. But that what wasn’t so easy. Because on the video was nothing really suspicious to discover. It was flawless. After Robbie and Mark had looked at it for the hundredth time, they finally gave up. The only thing that could be done was to search through the archive. Perhaps it was someone who wanted to take revenge on Gary. This was a heathen work, but it was better than nothing. The two men couldn’t possibly sit idly, waiting for something to happen.

 

After a felt eternity the door was opened and the vanished Jason joined the side of his two colleagues, who were also his best friends at the same time. Robbie and Mark looked up at him with a good dose of hope, which only led to a question.

"And? Was something found?" Robbie could no longer escape.  
"Yes and no." It came from Jason and then came to an answer that gave not exactly a lot, "The whole booth was turned upside down and nothing interesting was found except for a lost button. The guys of the criminal-technical are investigating it just for fingerprints."  
"The button can be from anyone who goes in and out." Mark interrupted.  
"Not necessarily. The button was found near the vault. ...So either from the staff or in the case of the perpetrator."  
"So the circle of suspects has not really diminished. ...Hopefully, the fingerprints don’t belong to Gary." Robbie remarked more casually and raised his hope in relation to Gary, openly.  
"Maybe we can find it that way, too." thought Mark aloud.  
"And how?" Jason asked somewhat awkwardly.  
"Your video! This shows how Gaz goes in and out again. If a button is missing afterwards, then we know it." he explained.  
"This is not a bad idea for itself, but you just forget that the culprit had carried his or her jacket wrong in the end. During the actual robbery, the perpetrator had rid themselves of the robbery. ...We're not allowed to look at the front of his jacket." Robbie Mark's idea wasn’t so bad at first, but he had to point out that the perpetrator had left his jacket on the left when leaving the building would have.  
"Right. I just forgot that for a moment. ...Then we have to be patient and wait to see what the investigation will bring." Mark admitted that she had completely ignored this one point and had thus forgotten.  
"That's how it looks. Unfortunately, there is nothing left for us to do." Robbie found it difficult to deal with it.

 

For a while, it was quiet in the office and everyone was thinking about Gary. What will become probably from this if, nevertheless, one could really prove the action to him?


	4. A Catastrophic Consequences And Solution

**Somewhere in London - 12:14 hrs**

In order for Gary to sort out his far too chaotic thoughts, he had gone on a lengthy walk. But what had brought him nothing at all. The idea that he could have done it and thus made himself punishable, didn’t want to let him go under any circumstances. The fear and, of course, the doubts about himself, aroused him rightly.

Although Gary was aware of his innocence, he still felt as if he had been torn off all the flesh from his bones. He came to mind a case that had taken place in Canada a few years ago, causing a sensation. A sleepwalker actually had traveled twenty-three kilometers by car, where he had just broken into a house and committed a murder. On the basis of an opinion concerning insanity, he was released after his arrest and five years later.

So he wondered if that was the case with him. Could it be that he had recently walked among the sleepwalkers and went on a night of raids? But it was hard to believe that the fact that he was somewhere in the night and that he should have taken all sorts of valuables with him. Since Gary also knew the sleepwalking was connected with mental stress and he had not lately had this approach possessed, he could shoot this theory right back into the wind. Sure, there were several triggers behind the sleepwalker, but none of them could project Gary onto himself, just to suddenly start walking on nocturnal walks.

Since this thought did not help him much, he needed something else to be able to distract himself somehow. No matter how he did it. The main thing was that his pear had a certain employment.

 

Without thinking much about how he was going to organize it, Gary was simply looking for the next pub, which was open at this very early time. With heavy steps he entered the next one, which crossed his path. As soon as Gary had found his way into the interior, he threw more than just a questioning look through the entire room. What was he doing here? He would probably not find the solution to his problems on the bottom of a glass. For a moment, he thought of leaving the premises. But the next moment, Gary let himself be guided by his thoughts ...and they led him directly to the counter, where he took a seat on one of the many barstools. As he drove one hand through his tense face, he ordered himself from the bartender, which came to mind in this one second.

"A Scotch, please!"

Actually, Gary wasn’t a big Scotch drinker, but he needed more than urgently what high percentage. The fact that he now wanted to drown his actual problems with alcohol and that at that time, showed him all too clearly how desperate he had to be able to finally forget this alleged act. In the second, when the glass with the Scotch stood in front of him, he immediately afterwards and Gary emptied it with few moves. In order to feel better the effect of the alcohol, he laid a hand on his closed eyes and let himself be absorbed by the warmth of the warmth, which gave him that which he had longed for. With his warmth, his brain was enveloped in a dense fog, so that every single train of thought instantly evaporated into all directions of heaven. But the desired effect did not last long and so it came that he was caught up again by reality.

The trick with Scotch had helped him a bit, but to Gary's suffering it had not been permanent. To get back to where he had not been half a minute before, he ordered another Gary with only two moves. This time, the effect would last a bit longer, but before he was dragged into the here and now, he let himself pour his empty glass a third time. What Gary then without thinking about the consequences on ex drank up.

"Another one." Gary asked shortly afterwards for his fourth Scotch.  


The bartender didn’t look at him enthusiastically, because he hated such people, who simply had to get down here and had to get drunk right away ...and this also at this time.

"Come on. Go on." Gary urged him to hurry.  
"Don’t you also think you already had enough?" The man asked, instead of giving him something new.  
"No. Not a long time." Gary pointed out.

The moment the bartender wanted to contradict him, and thus a heated argument could come, Gary's phone suddenly rang and saved him from an unpleasant situation. After Gary glancing at the glowing display, he saw Robbie's number. Before accepting the conversation, Gary had his counterpart, with a louder voice, that he wanted to have that glass still absolutely.

"But this will definitely be the last one or I will throw you out in a very personal way." The Chief of the Criminal Investigation heard from him.

With the hope that his colleague still had good news for him, he finally took the conversation and watched as the bartender refilled his glass a fourth time.

"Ssomething’s new?" Gary asked slightly tipsy and fell into the house with the proverbial door.  
_"Is everything okay with you? You sound so strange."_  
"Everything’s alright. ...So what doess it look like?"

The ensuing silence at the other end meant nothing more than clearly good and brought Gary's alarm systems to a deafening and mean shrillness that could not be turned off. Apparently, Robbie did not know how to tell him gently. But the longer he waited with the redemptive response, the worse his feeling that he was really deep in shit. Either one had something to do, or even worse, the booty of the robbery in his home.

"What’s now? Sspit it out at lasst. I'm not getting any younger either." Gary began to babble.  
_Before Robbie responded, he said: "Is everything okay with you? You might think you already drank a glass too much."_  
"Who? Me? Not me. But it is much too early, isn’t it? ...Now finally come to the point and do not make it sso exciting."  
_"Now. Jay was once again at the scene, and a button was found that clearly belonged to the perpetrator and must have lost it on the way out. The guys from the criminal-technical have just finished coping with the fingerprints and they're saying it's yours!"_

On Robbie's speech, Gary kept his eyes closed and had really kept each breath to himself, so he wouldn’t misinterpret every single word from him. But after he had informed him of the result of the investigation, he came back to his breath again, leaving his stricken and hoarse voice in his own voice.

"Please tell me that's just a bad joke."  
_"It is not, unfortunately. I'm sorry. ...And Gaz, there's something else you should know. ...You've found the jewelery as well as the money in your apartment!" Robbie let him know the rest._  
"All this can not be true." Gary said more to himself, whereupon he could just drop his head and just terminate the telephone conversation abruptly by turning it off completely.

The hell, however, that was not really his day. It couldn’t be worse. The fact that he was really bitter from his nightmare was simply not true. ...How could this ever be possible?

 

While from his body any feeling and faith in itself gave way, he automatically reached for his filled in glass and attached it once more to be able to drink up this next time on ex. Through the alcohol, which now ran hot down his throat and triggered in him a pure tsunami of emotions, he again got a lot of his body feeling back. When the burning was in his throat, the damage inside him had already been straightened. This lack of emotion, which he now faced powerlessly, grew ever more immeasurable and sought for a more than adequate outlet valve. But the more Gary clung to his self-control, and so everything tried to keep himself under control, the worse it became. At least as long as until his action suddenly gained the upper hand and the thought was easily placed in the next corner.  
So Gary let out all his frustration by screaming his throat right out of his neck and throwing the empty glass against the nearest wall. This one wall, however, consisted mainly of shelves and where the inventory of the various spirits was. To this misfortune, more bottles broke than one thought, leaving a trace of devastation.  
"Now it is enough for me. You can not mine. Argh." The bartender was fed up with Gary now finally them.  
What was going on? Why did he interrupt himself by bringing a half-stifled cry of pain over his lips and holding his left eye with a pain-distorted face?  
Although most of the glass splinters fell to the ground and the alcohol flowed in streams, some of them were self-sufficient and flew sideways like a projectile from the accident site. The bartender was unfortunately hit by one of these bullets! 

_*Ouch*_

But since Gary wasn’t the only guest in this pub, the few who were present were staring at the counter and trying to realize what was going on. After this guy had called for a scream, all the guests were witnesses of how he instantly grabbed a glass and threw it at the opposite wall. Even the subsequent accident, which had happened to the bartender, didn’t remain unseen.

 

Holy shit! What was Gary doing now? How did he get to demolish a pub and, on the other hand, seriously injure the owner with this monstrous act? Gary knew about the circumstances, but that shouldn’t have happened. Especially not in his current situation. He also saw a headline in front of him, where the entire title page would be claimed by the Sun in tomorrow's edition. Looking at the image of the chaos left behind, Gary asked himself what he wanted to accomplish. ...Is this a kind of self-punishment?

How could he sink so deeply that he wanted to destroy himself? Was that the same Gary whom he saw in the mirror every morning?

But with this scenario in front of his eyes, he was more than just painfully aware of what he had set up there. He was responsible. The suspended chief of police Gary Barlow.  
At the sight of what he had fabricated there came a self-destructive feeling, which consisted of a dangerous mixture like fear, hatred and self-doubt.

Fear, ...before what was ahead of him. A future that wasn’t worth living for.

Hatred, ...to himself. How could he overreact and thus make a life of life extremely difficult for a pub owner?

Doubtless, because of what he had done. If he was already capable of such a thing, how was the theft of valuable objects?

So he wondered what he was capable of. Wouldn’t he also be afraid of murder? Although Gary would never want to do something like that in life, the idea that he could be capable of it did not let go. This was clearly something he didn’t want to do.

 

Still, while looking at the image of chaos, he was suddenly gripped by a stranger's shoulder whos turned him around and gazed at Gary. After he had changed his grip and put him on the collar, the stranger didn’t take long to give Gary a clear opinion.

"What kind of shit guy are you? So you know right away, I hate such types as you are. You are so damaging that I have to vomit. ...You can not be like a madman here, to destroy the lifework of a good man and to hurt him unnecessarily. You should put it in the nearest prison cell and discard the corresponding key. ...I advise you that you will quickly apologize to the poor guy or they will get more than just a juicy advertisement because of damage to property and bodily injury!"

What? An advertisement for material damage and personal injury? Gary had just missed that. He definitely couldn’t allow that. Of course, it would be the best if he immediately followed to the demand, but something was there that opposes and thus again strived. His body no longer obeyed him and was manipulated by the endorphins so Gary now lost all control over himself. Without really wanting to, he simply attacked the stranger by pushing it away with all his might. Although he had actually managed to get rid of his grip, Gary's unrivaled strength left him with a much too bitter-tasting trace.

For the following, Gary went on as if in slow motion. The guy he had pushed away from him had been so surprised that he could no longer hold onto him, so he stumbled backwards, where he then tore a table with him and fell there motionless. Before Gary could rain himself and see if the man was doing well, a young woman hurried to the side of the ground and tried to help him. But as he was not moving, she felt for his pulse.

"Oh my God. He ...he has no pulse any more! You ...you’ve killed him!" The young woman stammered, looking up at Gary with a frightened look.

 

On this bad news, Gary instantly blew the blood out of his face and stared more than disbelieving at the alleged corpse. Whereupon his heart, as well as the breathing, began to race incessantly and nothing, really nothing at all, could soothe him. As well as? He had a human life on his conscience! A human life!

No. That just could not be true.

"What ...what did I do?" Gary asked softly, not understanding what had happened around him in the last few minutes.

It was the purest nightmare, from which he only wanted to awaken. But this nightmare held him with his ice-cold paws so firmly that he couldn’t even think of waking. Gary was trapped in his own personal nightmare ...and there was no escape.

But since it wasn’t a dream, and so all of the events on this day were more than just reality, Gary left the pub overhead and disappeared without a trace.


	5. Before We Say Goodnight Look Down And Call For Time

**Presidium - 18:34 hrs**

Actually Robbie would have end of work in this time long ago and would’ve to be with his wife Ayda now. But he was fixed on his thoughts about Gary. For some reason, he probably thought that this one could rush here every moment and see his salvation where no one expected him. Despite the troublesome beginnings, Gary now became one of his best friends, yet he wondered how deeply her confidence really was. This whole thing with the burglary in Johnsons jeweler shops gave him a cause for concern. What did he get from it ...and above all, where was his motive? It was bad enough to be able to identify his fingerprints and find the stolen goods at his home.

Then he asked himself in all seriousness whether he could continue to give his friend and colleague his confidence and yet did not know him as well as he had so far assumed.

Shortly afterwards, he was torn from the door, and Jason appeared with a file in his hand on the scene.

"Hi Rob. You're still here?" He was surprised by Robbie's presence.  
"Obviously. ...I do not mind the whole thing with Gaz anymore. We've been working together for so many years now and I should’ve known him well enough that he would never do that. Unfortunately, the evidence suggests more than clearly against Gary and I think about whether I don’t know him so well."  
"It’s the same to me. ...Gaz is really a good friend and colleague in one, because you simply do not want to believe that he could have something to do with it."  
"Do you know anything new? Was Gary already found?" Robbie finally asked, hoping that Jason would finally get a good message on this day.  
"Unfortunately, no. The colleagues are still searching for him. ...Gaz is swallowed by the ground. There is no indication of where he could be. I guess it's going to be submerged somewhere."  
"That is very likely. The question is only where. ...After I’d told him about the fingerprints and the found stolen property, he had just muttered something’s and just hung up."  
"Hm, that doesn’t tell us much where he could be. We could at best get his cell phone." Jason went on to explain how to find him.  
"You can safely forget that. I've tried several times, but it's only the mailbox. It's turned off."  
"Hopefully, he doesn’t do any stupid things." Jason turned to hope and looked at Gary's empty workplace.

 

Where the hell was he? Gary couldn’t have disappeared into the air. Someone must have seen him. So it was a matter of the impossibility that one of Gary's men fell into the crowd. But in today's society, most people were only self-centered and had no interest in throwing an eye on their fellow human beings. At least not until it met them personally. So it will not be easy to find him. Gary was now a police officer and accordingly, he knew how to leave no traces.

 

"What you have there? A new case?" Robbie asked after a while, casting a quick glance at the file that Jason held in his hand.  
"Um. Yes. We shall investigate unknown. We have an advertisement for damage to property, bodily injury and killing! Even before the colleagues had dived, the suspect had simply gone out of the dust. The search for him is already on high tours." Jason clarified him immediately.  
"Him? A man?"  
"According to the testimony. Yes. I just talked to a young woman, her name is Marion Crenshaw, who confirms this. The suspect was shouted in a pub and thrown with a glass against the shelf with the spirits. The owner was injured in the left eye by a glass splitter. Then according to her statement the killed should’ve pointed out to the culprit to the fact that he should better apologise to the owner. ...But what he hadn’t done. Instead, he should have pushed away him of himself and the killed tore a table with himself and went down. He was dead immediately! Shortly thereafter our suspect has visited the width." Jason let out nothing in his story of the action procedure.  
„That's not just the fine English kind. I suppose sometimes that he had filled up himself before still substantially!“ Robbie left the last sentence not uncommented one and saw, besides, already before himself how this guy still unknown to them a drink had drunk after the other to ex.  
"He did it, too. The owner was able to say that he had pulled up four Scotches.", Jason confirmed Robbie's guess, letting him know why he came here and how his last official session looked today, "Anyway, I just wanted to brin the File, and then I will put together with the young woman to create a phantom picture. ...But that should be enough for today."  
"Today was also a long day. ...I'm going to go home. Ayda is already waiting." Robbie nodded to him, making arrangements to go home, taking a quick look at his watch.  
"Is good. We'll see each other tomorrow ...and hopefully with good news." Jason said, and hoped by the way that there will be at least one good news on the tomorrow’s day.


	6. All Those Minutes Get Lost In Time

**25.10.20XX - Presidium - 18:34**

More than just thought lost, Robbie went down the aisles on this rainy morning of the Presidium until he stood in front of his office. For a few seconds, he stopped at the door and wondered if it wouldn’t have been better to stay in bed at home. From yesterday's day, and especially from the night, when he had scarcely set an eye, he felt something like this from a long time.

But now he was here and could scarcely make a retreat, even if he was the first person to see it clearly. So he opened the door, flooded the dark room with bright light, and hung his jacket on the clothes rack. Shortly afterwards, he was already standing in front of his desk, and slumped into the chair. Robbie leaned back and closed his eyes for a moment.

What will the new day bring? Was there any news about Gary? What is actually the volatile type from the current case? Was at least this already found and questioned about his action procedures?

All these questions swarmed through Robbie's head. But not even a single response came to mind. Not to mention an initial idea. Since Jason arrived yesterday with this video, everything was simply turned upside down and got additionally a dizzying turn of three hundred sixty degrees.

 

While Robbie still fought with the feeling that he was on a never-ending carousel, the door was opened, whereupon Mark and Jason stepped in slowly. Robbie looked up at the two of them and watched as the two sat down completely without words on two chairs. The frightening silenced with which they gave themselves, did not please Robbie at all. Since neither Mark nor Jason came, Robbie looked at the two singly and noticed how they exchanged silently glances. This could mean only one thing. …Bad news.

But what Robbie didn’t want to hear in the least. For who would voluntarily make bad news about themselves? ...No one else.

"What's happening? Is there something new?" Robbie was finally gripped by his curiosity.

Mark and Jason gave each other a dumb look at the end, until the last one pulled out a folded sheet of paper and instantly passed it on to Robbie.

"This is our unidentified suspect who flees after the pub stay." Jason added with a occupied voice.

Robbie looked at Jason briefly then unfolded the piece of paper with trembling hands. He looked big at the sight of the suspect. That couldn’t be true, that had to be a mistake. ...But the face that he looked at was clearly that of Gary!  
"This is not supposed to be our Gary now?" Robbie suddenly shouted out, holding his disbelieving gaze on the phantom picture.  
"Unfortunately yes. Mrs. Crenshaw could identify him exactly. ...It was Gary, there is no doubt!" Jason had to make a dash for him, which of course he didn’t like.

It was also hard for him to see Gary as a suspect. Despite his tempered temperament, which he sometimes showed now and then, if one even pushed him into a corner, his heart was still in the right place. He was more than a good colleague. A friend.

" _Oh Gaz. What the hell is going on with you? I don’t want to say, of course, that you’ve actually committed this theft, but what have you done again? Even if this video is not, there is still the display, which is based on material damage, bodily injury and killing and finally makes you ready. ...Have you had any problems we didn’t know about? You should have just said one word. ...We could have helped you._ " Run Jason's thoughts hot.

 

Robbie could only turn his gaze and shake his head. That Gary had slowly gotten to his head and had to make him mad was absolutely understandable. However, he couldn’t understand that his friend was so misguided by all the emotions and thus had a human life on his conscience. What had driven him to go to the next pub, and let his brain shut off with the help of alcohol? Robbie was more likely now that he was in the very beginning to the search for the person who wanted to wipe him with the video one. So Gary could hardly have played with the thought that he could really be the culprit. After all, he had previously declared his innocence, and he would never want to get in the way of the law. For this, he loved his work as a chief inspector.

...Unless he was driven into the corner by some vindictive people.

"That can not be true. ...Gaz, what do you do for things? In what are you just talking about?" Robbie asked more about himself.  
"And we can’t do anything for him. ...Just wait until Gary makes the next mistake." Mark said loudly.  
"I hardly believe this will happen. Gaz will definitely not be so stupid and want to make another mistake. He sits so already so deep in the shit that nothing and no one can still get out there. It is more likely that he is hiding somewhere." Jason tried to move into Gary's position and worked out his situation in a very vivid picture, "Even if someone avenge himself at Gary and give him the theft, for whatever reason because there is still the display. There will definitely be a juicy financial penalty on the damage to the property and the bodily injury, but that is still nothing compared to what he would’ve to expect if one takes the killing of the one man. ...Either way, Gaz will cost a few years of his life."  
"Provided that one finds him." Mark pointed out more than thoughtfully, and did not want to paint to himself this picture only at all, if Gary could be found generally.  
"Somehow determined and then he must be responsible for it. ...Jay’s right. Even if Gary has acted out of affect, he will still have to sit down for it. ...We can do nothing more." Robbie said to the two of them and, of course, to himself, that it was more than just bad for their mutual friend.

 

On this admission, Robbie could only breathe out and exhale once more and sank again into his thoughts. He would gladly give Gary the faith that he had nothing to do with all this. However, with it he demonstrated to himself what. Okay. The thing with the theft could be quite a sophisticated video, only to put Gary into the bad light and it was thus as a kind of revenge act. However, since no one had ever thought of showing his ugly face in the beginning, and thus still wrapped himselfs in a dark mantle of silence, it was difficult to find any conceivable approach at all. It was true that Robbie and Mark had already searched the whole archive for a possible perpetrator, who had a motive for such an act and was able to carry it out. Whereupon the well-loved persons were still in custody, were dead or had left the country to build up a new life. Therefore, there was no possible ex-prisoner who might consider such a thing.

In the subsequent pub visit, however, which couldn’t be more tragic for Gary, he let himself go to a more than just questionable level under the influence of alcohol, and he was also blamed for a man too early Life.  
...What then happened it before witnesses.

 

It was futile. Gary was left to be alone. He had no one left to get rid of him. Normally the hope dies at last, but in this case it was already dead.

This was now more than painfully conscious for Robbie and now had to come to somehow clear. It will not be easy, but the life goes on. In this life, there was no stagnation. Time went on indefatigably. Nothing, nothing could stop it. A black hole could perhaps distort the time and slow it down significantly, but that wouldn’t bring much. Because the time would always go on and on ...!


	7. Are You My Enemy Or My Friend?

**01.11.20XX - Presidium - 7:38 hrs**

Several days passed. Since Gary had made his escape, and had swallowed the ground, the criminal police were still searching for him. But there wasn’t even the slightest trace of him, this search turned out to be like the proverbial needle in the haystack. Gary couldn’t be found. Which one had expected somehow. As a former Chief of Police, he obviously had the knowledge of how he disappeared unobserved from the scene and, if necessary, was able to interfere. This was the reason why the search for only four days was discontinued. With a bit of luck and by the help of some kind of wary fellow human beings, Gary would appear. …Hopefully.

 

At this quite early time, Robbie entered the office, casting an inevitable gaze at the desk that Gary used. But his new colleague, who was to replace Gary after only one day, was already sitting at this place now. What Robbie couldn’t understand at all. In his eyes, Gary wasn’t so easy to replace.

Now making a comparison was completely insane and inappropriate at the same time. No. The two could and should not be opposed.

Disregarding the age difference of eight years, this tall and stout criminal chief commissioner looked like a closet from the stature. In addition, he didn’t spoke a lot. But when he said something, then he did this with a voice, where Robbie put up all his neck hair. It was not, of course, that he came across as a cruel major criminal, but he had something threatening about him. ...So comparing him to Gary was a completely wrong time. 

Even working with him proved quite difficult. Okay. Working with Gary had not been the best in the beginning, but his former partner had still had human traits. What Robbie was missing in the new something. For this reason he would prefer to work with a better know-it-all, than with this eerie fellow, who was sitting in front of him. Secretly, he even played with the thought of wanting to go. After all this time, Gary was even more than just a partner for him. Robbie saw in him the best friend he ever had.

"Good morning, colleague." Robbie finally greeted him, trying to cast a tired smile on his face.

 

His opposite, who bore the name of Peter Jones, accepted the morning greeting with a nod and sank back into his work. From this negative attitude toward him, Robbie made no sign of his slight insecurity, and took a few sighs of relief from his jacket, which he hung on a clothes rack in the corner. As he did every morning, he followed like his first official act, while he got a strong coffee for himself.

Shortly after, Robbie stood with a cup of coffee in his hand in front of the window and looked lost in thought into a world that was being kissed by the rising sun. In the virgin and cold sky red streaks appeared and announced a wonderful day. But Robbie couldn’t really enjoy it.

" _Gaz. Where are you now? ...Please. Come back._ " Robbie mourned further in his mind behind his missing and former colleague, wondering himself in thoughts where this could only be.

 

After a while, Robbie had enough time to wander into the distance and to think about where his disappeared friend was now. It didn’t matter much to him when he stood here and stared out of the window. No matter how long he did it, Gary had gone missing. If he didn’t want to be found, it was damn difficult to find him. Despite what he had done, he remained a long-time companion and a good friend. Accordingly, it wasn’t easy to forget him.

But as Robbie was a police officer, he had to remain objective and consider Gary as a suspected perpetrator. So Robbie had no choice but to do his job and question everything that made no sense. ...Even if it was a former colleague.

 

As the Chief of Criminal Investigation went to the desk and came to sit rather heavily, he threw Jones a glance at him briefly, wondering why he spoke so little. Robbie's guess was that as a child and teenager he had a very bad time. Somehow he already had the picture in front of him, as his father had always been reprimanded, so that he came across as a perfect and ice-cold soldier.

"Tell me, Jones. Can you please tell me why you talk so little?" Robbie finally dared to make a conversation and tried to find out something private about him.  
Jones, five years younger, looked up at him and had his new colleague wait for him with an answer until after almost half a minute he finally took pity: "Maybe because you don’t always have to talk? Besides, it's my beer how much I'm talking about. I don’t think much of senseless ramblings. ...Like this here!"  
"Sorry to rob you of your precious time." Robbie said, just snapping behind his computer.

Whow. What a colleague. You had to handle more than clearly with velvet gloves. With him, he will definitely have his fun. That was no question. Getting used to him will take more time than Gary had once been. This was a hard time for Robbie.

 

Eventually, a quarter of an hour later, Jason came in here, trying to draw the attention of those present, saying that they had been given a new case.

"I wish you a good morning too, colleague." Robbie did not let Jason point out that something like a proper greeting was missing him.  
"Oh. I am very sorry for that now. ...I wish you a very good morning, my dear Mr. Williams. Mr. Jones." Jason went into the game, emphasizing the names of the two.  
"...So, what is it about? Hopefully not for one of those stupid Halloween pranks." Robbie hoped that this wasn’t an annual and macabre prank.  
"Against a good Halloween prank, I would have no objection, but if this should be one, then with me more than a border was exceeded. ...It was broken in a funeral home and the owner was found dead!"  
"This is not your seriousness now? Who breaks in a funeral home and also kills the owner?" Robbie found it extremely strange.  
"Perhaps the perpetrator wanted to take a corpse for his Halloween party, and the owner got him in the way?" Jones asked loudly, thus immediately raising his first thoughts.  
Whereupon Robbie gave the new a somewhat disgusted look and tried to imagine what that was for a kind of party: "But then someone has quite twisted and sick ideas for a Halloweenparty. At such a party where the story of Halloween is much too serious, I wouldn’t want to be there."  
"It goes on further ...and by the way, Jones isn’t so wrong with his theory." Jason let the two know that he wasn’t yet finished with his story and brought the other events to the discussion, "The The dead man was found in a coffin, which actually already has an end user in view ...and from this is missing any trace!"  
"Indeed? ...And for whom was this coffin really meant?" Robbie could only ask in disbelief and also wanted to find out right away whether one already knew under which name the disappeared corpse had lived.  
"This is what the boys of the criminal-technical are trying to find out. A list has been found of the names of all the dead who are to be buried in the near future ...and randomly, the name of the person killed is now also on it." Jason pointed out that this work was already full in progress.  
"Probably it is that the offender has removed the name of the corpse and replaced it with the owner." Jones explained his other thoughts.  
"What about witnesses, videotapes, or the like?" Robbie asked for other possible evidence.  
"There’s not any. The perpetrator apparently knew exactly what he was doing." Jason had to disappoint him.  
"So, we're dealing with a professional." Robbie said.  
"A professional who steal’s a corpse? ...Yeah. Right." Jones was now void.

For him it wasn’t exactly logical. What should a professional start with a corpse? A professional wouldn’t want to bump into a corpse as an amateur. Because a professional should really know that dealing with a corpse was not straightforward.

"You don’t believe that a professional was at work?" Jason asked.  
"Thinking is not your strength, is it? Hello. ...Firstly, a corpse is not just easy to hide, unless you of course dismember them beforehand. Secondly, this will eventually start to smell and thirdly, a corpse is an obstacle for me ...if you know what I mean." Jones clarified his view of the case.

Robbie and Jason looked at him, slightly puzzled. Not because of the content or as he had said it, but because of the verbosity. Usually he was so worthless. Why had he suddenly become so talkative? Most likely it was that he wanted to leave they as a stupid little idiots. Obviously, he considered himself the greatest. Probably believed, that he had emerged from a picture book like a policeman.

...And one of them was the new partner at Robbie's side. But he had to accept this and try to get along with each other. Even, if it proved to be difficult.

"Also good, then it was just a beginner. But a beginner who knew what he was doing." Jason commented for the sake of simplicity, but then he saw Jones only annoyed twisting his eyes, and so quickly added, "At least what is not left behind traces."

Since Jason knew that with Jones wasn’t good at eating cherries, and that he couldn’t win this fight, he give him this point voluntary. Just like Robbie, he could not deal with this kind of the new at all. Jason didn’t even have the slightest sympathy with the way he ever came to a job at all. In his opinion, as a prison guard or as one of the guys in the special mission, he would be a much better figure than to sit at the desk and sometimes be summoned for occasional service. The management had to make a huge mistake. It couldn’t be otherwise. Such a guy was by no means included here.

Somehow he seemed to be here, and especially Robbie's side, completely out of place.


	8. Waiting For Your Interview

**Office Williams & Jones - 13:56 hrs**

The hours went by and the dissatisfaction of the commissioners, there was still no reliable information to their current case, which could be followed even at first. Not even the guys of the criminal-technical or the legal medicine reported. What now had to mean, however, that nothing was found. These criminal and medical examinations needed time. Such work should be carried out thoroughly, and sometimes even extremely piny. Nevertheless, it was quite possible that a perpetrator left a crime scene without leaving any traces. ...But sometimes a clever head becomes careless and gave the police the chance to intervene.

 

At midday, Mark, with an elderly lady, snowed at his side and let Robbie and Jones know at once that something had happened in their new case.

"Hi guys. In our new case, something is happening. Although the boys of the securing of evidence have turned the entire funeral home upside down, nothing was found. It’s the same with the criminal-technical. Our offender had really been very careful not to leave behind the slightest traitorous sign."  
"Hmm. Then we are probably dealing with a more than just slept fox here and who knows what he has with the corpse. ...I don’t like that at all. Since you can only hope that this fox becomes careless and makes a mistake." Robbie wasn’t very enthusiastic about the development of the case and was already thinking that behind the motiv there was something gigantic and that the act had to be planned down to the smallest detail.

For who was already stealing a corpse without having a hind limb? This case was amusing, and they were just starting out with their investigations. Where there was even some evidence.

"Maybe your fox has already made the mistake and has already been careless." Mark went on the spell with the fox and let Robbie and, of course, Jones know that this fox with his cock once too much and thus attracted attention, "The young woman next to me is called Marge Ferguson and just came to the presidency just to ask for our current case. ...She says she has a potential suspect for us!"  
"Really? You saw what?" Robbie suddenly became amused and turned to Mark's companion.  
"I can not say that directly, but yes." Replied Mrs. Ferguson, just as truthfully.  
"Well. Please sit down." Robbie offered her the chair in front of her.

Thanking Mrs Ferguson, she accepted the offer and was delighted that she didn’t have to stand any longer because of her age.

 

Before Robbie at all came to ask her what she wanted to see, the older lady also began to talk about her observation: "I didn’t see the act itself, but I could well imagine who behind it could be stuck. Namely my unofficial neighbors...!"  
"Unofficial?" Jones interrupted her instantly.  
"Yes. The neighboring apartment has been empty for a few weeks, but still a young man always goes in and out. ..."  
"Maybe, the new tenant?" Jones interrupted her again, not very sensitive.  
"I may be old, Commissioner. But not stupid." Ms. Ferguson replied promptly, "He usually wore dark clothes and always had a big suitcase. ..."  
"Where their, contents were destined to be measuring devices." Jones remained in his absent attitude to face Mrs. Ferguson.  
But she didn’t let herself be misled, and then simply continued: "The guy was suspicious from the start. As I value him, he certainly has something to do with this. I'm absolutely sure of that."  
"And what makes her so sure?" Robbie asked cautiously and somewhat skeptically.  
"That's obvious. He has something to hide, I sense, and I am sure he plans something terrible."  
"And what makes you suspect that he could be our culprit?"  
"As I have already mentioned, he went into and out of the apartment every day. He must have watched the funeral home. I can not explain it differently."  
"Wait a moment. He should have watched the funeral home?" Robbie repeated the statement.  
"Yes. So it seemed to me. Because from this apartment, you can see very well what is in the entrance area so and I guess also because nobody wants to live there. I live right on the opposite side of this apartment." Ms Ferguson tried to describe her observation and how she came to think that this man could be the perpetrator.

On this rather surprising statement, Jones closed his eyes a bit annoyed and wondered why some people came out with such a statement until the end. He felt as if he were at one of those stupid casting shows, where the moderator had to drag everything over dramatically, until this finally came to the announcement of the decision.

Since Robbie was aware of his reaction, he gave him a brief, uncomprehending look, and before he could express himself, he thanked the woman for his help and, of course, for the detailedness of her observations. He also asked if she could give an approximate description of this man. What Ms Ferguson could also affirm. 

"Good. Mark, can you please make a phantom picture with Mrs. Ferguson?" Robbie then turned to the Commissioner, who was still present during the interrogation and had nevertheless been quiet.  
"Sure, of course. ...Are you coming with me, please?" Mark nodded to him then turned back to Mrs. Ferguson to leave the office together.

 

After Mark left the office with Mrs. Ferguson, Robbie ordered the investigative team around Howard Donald and Oliver Murs to take a closer look at this apartment, together with the tracking system. The two colleagues and commissioners mentioned had only successfully completed an undercover assignment yesterday, so the entire group was finally complete again. ...More or less. On the news of what had happened last week and that Gary had since disappeared without a trace, the two had, as already expected, react completely shocked. This was really a hard blow. Just like the fact that Gary was replaced within a day by a guy like Jones.

However, as the search of the apartment is still going on, Robbie and Jones paid a visit to legal medicine. Perhaps the corpse had an important indication to convict the perpetrator. With a little bit of luck, the final report was just completed in this one moment.


	9. One Step Forward

**Institut for Forensic Medicine - 14:30 hrs**

The moment Robbie and Jones had entered the light-chilled room, the responsible law physician was just about to cover the corpse with a mint green cloth and close the associated file. As it looked, the two chief inspectors came at the right time.

"You've had a lot of time this time." Robbie said as the door behind him fell into the lock.  
The law physician, Dr. Sean O'Connor, turned to the commissioners and wanted to know from the two in a monotonous tone, as they would like to have it now times: "Such an autopsy takes time. If you want to have speed then I don’t mind, because then I could go to the evening before. Only then you must tell it me before. But if you are more interested in quality, you should be patient. .. So, what is more important to you? Speed or maybe more quality?"   
"Both as well." Was the short but concrete response from Robbie.  
"And?" Jones began to be impatient and was just about to get a preliminary assessment from the law physician.  
"What and?" O'Connor asked.  
"My worthy colleague wants to know if you have discovered something interesting." Robbie played the interpreter.  
Dr. O'Connor took a quick look at Robbie's new colleague and could only ask, "In a word?"  
"But anyway they do not make it so exciting," Robbie urged him to a fairly acceptable answer.  
"Nothing!" Was the simple and simple answer from the law physician.  
"Nothing?" Robbie repeated, believing that she had been interrogated.  
"Nothing. ...Except for the fact that he was attacked with a single-edged knife, there’s nothing else to discover. That's it. I've studied the poor guy from top to bottom. Even twice to be really safe. That's why it took so long. Your chosen prosecutor has left us nothing."  
"I don’t understand that. How can it be possible? Just about everyone leaves behind any trace. Either at the crime scene or, there was a murder, on the body itself." Robbie didn’t understand the world any more.

That couldn’t be true. There were no hints? What kind of tricky case was that? This guy must have left something behind. A tiny hair would be enough for him. But apparently there was not even that. Except for a possible suspect, which the funeral home supposedly should have observed, they had purely nothing in the hand. It was really desperate.

"If everything imaginable is planned, dressed appropriately, and embarrassed to be careful not to leave any traces, ...then not." O'Connor included in this consideration without being asked   
"This proves at least that there is certainly more than just big behind it. ...What personal." Jones said aloud.  
"I think so, too. ...The probability that our perpetrator must have known the corpse body is very high." Robbie agreed with Jones and also knew that this realization didn’t bring them anything, "Unfortunately, that does not mean much ...I hope that the phantom image will start something."

With the hope that the clue from the older lady proved not to be wrong and what made of it, Robbie and Jones disappeared with a simple farewell word on the lips and looked somewhat disappointed again their joint office.

 

When the two chief investigators returned to the said and everyday room, Mark came up with a piece of paper in his hand after about twenty minutes and handed it to him, "Here. That's him. ...That's what the guy should look like, according to Mrs. Ferguson."  
"That's a half-shirt." He commented, taking the picture completely differently.

One who at least also corresponded to the picture that one could trust him, a corpse simply times from a funeral home with. The guy who was staring at him from the phantom image couldn’t be older than his early twenties. In Jones' eyes a half teenager. Well. What was the name of it? ...Still waters were deep.

As Robbie finally wanted to take a picture of her suspect, he tore the picture out of Jones' hands and took a look.

"Show it to me. ...Is that really supposed to be our suspect?"  
"That is how Mrs. Ferguson described him to me." Mark left no doubt, stifled in germ.  
"But that doesn't mean that he must be our perpetrators. It can also very well be possible that he has worked for someone else to get some money. …OK. We should first find out as the young man is called and pre-loaded here. Perhaps he tells us what he has to do with it." Robbie had already had a guess as to how this young man was involved in this case and took the next step.

If this, one could be found at all and brought here. Just as the guy had hitherto done, this could be quite difficult. But so far Robbie had already succeeded in his career so far, which was initially still impracticable. At some point they would be able to put this obscure case to file. Robbie was sure of that.


	10. Get Ready For It

**Office Williams & Jones - 22 :57 hrs**

The hours passed like a chewed gum, and in the course of this time nothing was ever done in the further development of their case. Despite this late hour neither of the two detectives could think of sleep for a second, and thus to make their evening of work. This uncertainty, which caused someone to move a corpse, did not let them go in the least and gave Robbie the feeling of discomfort. An inner voice told him that something would happen today. But how could they prevent something if they did not move on in this more than just tricky case? Even the phantom image of her suspect, which was now hanging on the wall, had not given them any concrete data about this person. Not even the name. Although the young man looked quite innocent at first sight, he held himself in front of the Commissioners with such fate that the two of them could not even get an important detail about him. What slowly and surely drove her into the madness.

...So it had to be urgent, what happened.

 

But to Robbies and Jones' regret, nothing happened. This silence was just unbearable. It was like the deceptive calm before a devastating storm that could destroy everything. While a black wall came up on the proverbial horizon, the two cops reached already in this one moment the first foothills and the in the form of two rushing investigating teams. As a result of the tense silence between the two chief investigators, the most extreme was disturbed and broken. 

"And? How does it look like? Did the search of the apartment bring what? Please don’t tell me now that this was a wrong investment." Robbie let himself be infected by their stormy nature and wanted to know right away whether something suitable was found.  
"Whichever way you take it. We found nothing. ...The guy really thought about everything." Oliver made the beginning and had to disappoint Robbie regrettably.  
"However, someone could give us a tip, which we can pursue. A pedestrian, who’s walking along this street every day, had told us that a white van was standing in front of the residential complex for a week. At first he was not exactly suspicious, but until recently he saw the same van standing in the industrial area in front of an empty building. ...From him, we could also get the corresponding mark." Jason told his colleagues about the latest state of affairs. 

Thereupon Howard pulled a note from his pocket and read out the car license plate.  
On the naming of the license plate, Jones typed the numbers and letters in a program intended to be able to determine the holder of the vehicle in the same way. No sooner had this program spat out a name, he also immediately announced, as their suspect was now called.

"Daniel Andrews."  
"That sounds good. Now we have a picture and the corresponding name. ...What about the criminal records? Is there anything interesting?" Robbie asked Jones.

With that, several pairs of eyes were resting on Jones, waiting only to see what he would rumble down in the next few seconds. After Jones had apparently called up a long list and had obviously read it through, he brought a short dramatic pause, thus letting everyone know what his criminal record was now.

"Nothing!" Jones finally brought the too often used word over his thin lips.  
"Not even a pamphlet?" Mark asked quickly, if he hadn’t done an offense on the road, but Jones could only give him a basket with a head-shake.  
"This isn’t your seriousness now? You don’t really want to make us know that this Daniel was not even noticed? Anyone who leaves a corpse and kills the owner, just because he got in his way, has something to show. ...This is absolutely impossible." Jason could hardly imagine the criminal record of this Daniel, not even a single entry.

"I see that just like Jason. He must have some criminal background." Howard agreed with Jason.  
"Not necessarily. He could be just a simple observer to pay for it." Robbie knew that even an unspecified sheet had to start small and with what was more harmless and got the feeling that they should not wait any longer, “...Anyway. Our perpetrator is washed with all the water and should be offered with the utmost caution. ...Do you know what, we’re going to split up into two groups and try to find this Daniel."  
"Now? It's already eleven o'clock! Doesn’t that still have time until tomorrow?" Jason pointed out to the current hour, after he had cast a quick and fleeting glance at his watch.  
"No. A feeling tells me that we can not wait any longer. While Jones with Mark and Jason pay a visit to the industrial area and look for Daniel in the vacant building, Howard, Olly and I try our luck at his home address." Robbie didn’t want to waste any more time.  
"That sounds like a plan." Oliver could only say, agreeing to go on a night adventure.

 

What was said was also done. The two groups set out to find the Daniel Andrews and, if necessary, to take a closer look at the young man. The team around Jones in the industrial area and Robbie's team tried to visit him at home.

After Jason, Mark and Jones were on their way to the outskirts, Howard, Oliver and Robbie went to his home address. As luck would have it, the road to which he was resident had looked out of the industrial area just two miles away. It was obvious that this couldn’t be a coincidence. That everything had to be planned.


	11. Standing At Your Doorway, Won’t You Let Me In?

**Somewhere in London - 23:32 hrs**

Despite this late hour at night, Robbie's team tried to ring Daniel out of the apartment. But there was no reaction. Not even a suspicious sound could be heard from the apartment. The only answer they received from this Daniel was just an icy silence. He couldn’t possibly have such a deep sleep that he overheard the doorbell. Unless’s he was more shining with absence than lying in his bed and sleeping soberly. 

Since even after two minutes didn’t do the slightest thing they were on a very probably unsuccessful attempt to find a something like a replacement key. What finally it proved to be an error. So they had no choice but to get one of the neighbors out of bed and ask. Okay. They had certain possibilities to enter a locked apartment, but the police were also bound by certain rules they had to adhere to. 

 

One of these neighbors succeeded in getting the person who lived in it at the door. A middle-aged woman stepped in front of the commissars in the bathrobe and with a struggling hairstyle and complained at once about the midnight disturbance.

"What the hell do they want? Don’t you know how late it is?"  
"We are really sorry for the disturbance, Mrs. Ferres. We’re from the London Cripo and need to talk more than urgently with your neighbor Daniel Andrews. Only he doesn’t open the door for us, and we wanted to ask you if you might have a spare key to his apartment." Oliver took the talking and clarified the good woman about the circumstances.  
On the mention that they were from the Cripo, the three also showed off immediately with their laminated ID cards. 

"Oh. Erm. …Naturally. Wait a moment, please." Mrs. Ferres immediately understood that she was only asked for her help, and as she disappeared into her apartment for a moment to get the replacement key, she apologized for the speed of her behavior, "I'm sorry I was so lousy. It's just that I have to get to my work relatively early and if I don’t get my sleep at this hour, I may be allergic to it."  
"You don’t have to apologize. We understand that all too well. ...Nocturnal actions like this here we are reluctant to do." Oliver let her know at once that they had an absolute understanding for it and that these nightly attacks were sometimes very difficult for themselves.  
"What do you really want from Daniel? He doesn’t give you any problems, does it?" Ms Ferres wanted to know the circumstances, so the police would leave at this late hour just to talk to him.  
"He was sighted several times near a crime scene, where a murder was committed. This does not mean, of course, that he is our wanted offender, but he is now the only one we have been able to determine so far and want to know from him only, if he has seen something and maybe tell us something about the events." Robbie didn’t want to frighten her now that her neighbor might have a human life on his conscience.

Since Mrs. Ferres had not fallen on her head, she could already imagine what this Chief of Criminal Police really was about. In your opinion, had more to put behind it than just a simple survey ...and then also at this late hour.

So she couldn’t help but open her thoughts openly, while she opened the door with the spare key of Daniel's apartment: "Daniel and a murder? I can hardly imagine that."  
"And why not? Do you know him a little closer?" Robbie wanted to know the relationship she was with Daniel.  
"I can not really say I know him very well now. …But. I can tell you he is a very nice young man and a helpful person. He has often helped me with some everyday situation. A few weeks ago, for example, I had a huge problem with my computer, which he then solved with a few clicks and within seconds." Mrs. Ferres said that she could only say good things about Daniel, although she did of him knew only the most necessary.

On this statement, Oliver, Howard, and Robbie looked at each other with a brief and bizarre look. As it looked, this Daniel obviously had a very good technical knowledge, which had to enable him to hack into strange computers and, if necessary, to exchange any data. This showed them more than plainly that they were on a hot track. The suspicion that he had sent the corpse with him and that he had committed the intentional killing to the owner became more and more evident. 

 

When they all came into the apartment shortly thereafter, the small group was received by a yawning and black emptiness. But what was already stopped by lighting the light.

"Daniel Andrews? Here’s the police." Howard said shortly afterwards over his lips.

But an echo did not happen.

"Apparently he's not there." Oliver said.  
"That does not bother us, does it?" Howard asked more so casually.  
"Not really." Oliver pointed out.  
While Oliver and Howard began to take a closer look at the booth, Robbie tried to find out more about Daniel through Mrs. Ferres: "Can you give me a better description of Daniel? I mean, is he something like a loner?"  
"You could already describe him like that. Yes. ...As far as I know, Daniel never really had a real family. He grew up in various foster families."  
"And as his last foster parents were called, do you now also know by chance?"  
"I'm sorry. No."  
Shortly afterwards Oliver came and showed the two a picture with two people on it and asked immediately: "What is the picture here? ... Is this Daniel?"  
Ms Ferres glanced at the picture, where two teenagers had taken a piggyback and looked at to the camera.   
"No. The minor of the two is Daniel." The good woman clarified at the same time and denied this presumption.  
"And the other boy? Perhaps you’ve a clue as to who this might be?" Robbie asked, pointing to the older of the two Daniels had piggybacked.  
"That would have been his brother."  
"Brother? You just said he grew up in the most diverse foster families."  
"Of course he isn’t his biological brother. This must have been some boy from one of these foster families. At any rate, when I saw the picture for the first time, he had presented it to me as his brother. I strongly believe that Daniel looks up to him like a real brother. ...But don’t ask me now, what his name is." Mrs. Ferres told the two about their connection.  
"Okay. ...But you don’t have a slight suspicion where he might be?" Oliver asked himself to ask for a last question, but he only got a tired head-shake in reply.

 

"Rob. Olly. Come quickly. You have to look at it more than absolutely!" An excited voice became loud.

The voice of Commissioner Donald clearly came from the next room. It sounded as if he had found something interesting. Hastily ran Robbie and Oliver to this and saw, as he stood before an opened cabinet.

"What's the matter, Doug?" Oliver asked quickly.  
"See for yourself." Howard pointed out with a nod to his find and wanted from his two colleagues that they looked at themselves.  
"Oh my God! ...That explains probably more than we thought." Robbie after a while his thoughts in a barely perceptible whisper sound produced and besides wasn’t even in the approach in the position to turn away his more than just frozen view into the closet.


	12. In The Darkness You Must Stand To The Cold

**London - Industrial Area - 23:43 hrs**

At this time, the group around Jones finally reached the industrial area, where Jason brought his car to a standstill behind a big bush and parked it at an acceptable safety distance and with the utmost precautions. Despite the generous distance, the three now were careful not to give a sound. For such a large and empty warehouse, to which the group was now walking with low soles, could be quite badly soundproofed. In order not to suspect early on, they tried to stifle every sound. Accordingly, they had no choice but to turn off their phones. Although it was now completely prevented from any contact with the outside world, but their chances for a hopefully successful surprise attack continued to rise. Which was quite natural in their’ minds. With the hope that their presence would remain unnoticed, they tried to leave the way to a large warehouse as quickly as possible.

Due to their many years of experience, they were able to cover this apparent insuperable distance, but at a considerable record time. The realization that they were also completely right here, got the three by the white van, which they now in a hidden side street more than clearly to face.

 

With this certainty, they were looking for a side entrance on the opposite side, where one could enter the interior of the building completely unnoticed. To use the obvious main entrance was, in their opinion, a bit too risky. For if, Daniel really had something to do with the whole thing, they had to be careful. Especially with one like Daniel it was now. So it could not be ruled out that he had devised something like a sophisticated alarm system and had installed somewhere here. They would it trust him.

When they had taken the first step into the vacant building, each one of them was immediately received with an icy cold embrace. Even one of them got a goose bump like Jones. What he would never admit in life. 

 

Visually tense and completely silent, they finally took up the struggle with the eternal darkness. In here it was so dark that they couldn’t even see their own hands before their eyes. Through the white wall facades they couldn’t even put their brought along flashlights in operation. These would simply reflect the slightest light and their well-conceived surprise attack would be for the cat. For their presence to remain unnoticed, they had to become one with the darkness. It was no different.

For orientation, they ran with one hand along the rough wall covering, hoping thereby to work out at least a small tactical advantage. Because as soon as this Daniel had to appear suddenly and as if from the spirit hand, but he would betray his coming with some light source, they still had the chance to hide as quickly as possible. Likewise, with this method, they were able to find out when a diversion occurred, which led them to change the direction occasionally.

In this way, they were certainly wandering about the ten minutes through the endless aisles, and even believed that they were more and more distant from their real goal. After two more minutes, they finally looked at the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel. With the wall in the back to which they now pressed for protection, the three were magically attracted by the light, like the moths. Arriving at the other end of the corridor, Jones glanced around the corner. Nothing. Although the brightly lit corridor was not used, this Daniel could appear at any time. From his position, Jones tried to get a more accurate picture of his surroundings, with more than one unpleasant odor rising to his nose. The probability that it came from the vanished corpse was definitely more than one hundred per cent. This meant that it didn’t have to be far. Because of the fact that Daniel was not in the immediate vicinity, Jones took a risky attempt and left their safe and dark hiding place. At the silent sign that the two commissioners could calmly join him, Mark and Jason did so after him and went to the danger zone. To the side of a fearless leader. 

Slowly and with gentle steps, they finally made the effort to follow the course in the direction suggested by Jones and where, at the end, there was a darkened room. As soon as they had passed two-thirds of the course, steps were suddenly heard, which came very quickly. Immediately, and without thinking about it, the three reacted, and hurried back into the passage from which they had just entered. In the cover of the dark, Jones, Mark, and Jason immediately went back to the wall. With the breath held, and partly the tucked-in bellies, they were hoping that their disappearance would be just as unnoticed. It had been extremely scarce. If they had only hesitated for two more three seconds, their hasty disappearance would’ve been noticed by this Daniel. That was no question at all. 

 

Jones, who had deliberately chosen the opposite wall this time, and could thus have a good view of the events at the end of the corridors, also immediately saw a young man who was about to disappear in this one room. Before the threshold, however, he stopped short and eyed the doorway, which was very suspicious. As he turned to face it, giving Jones a chance to peer at him from top to bottom, he realized that Daniel was really determined. His body language, as well as the mimic, spoke volumes. What was further underpinned by a flashing knife, still freshly sharpened, which he almost clenched with his left hand. No matter what he intended to do, it was certainly no good. Jones was absolutely sure. 

Shortly thereafter, what Jones had already feared came. Daniel was actually grabbed by his mistrust and took possession of his body, whereupon he slowly descended the corridor. With every step he came closer, Jones became more and more uneasy. With a gesture in the direction from which they had come, he instantly instructed Jason and Mark to go deeper into the darkness. At the risk that they could still be caught by this Daniel at any moment, the small group looked for the next branch as quickly and quietly as possible. When they reached this, the gait they had recently used was illuminated by a weak light from a flashlight. 

Actually it was ridiculous that three policemen were hiding from a single person. At the same time, they could easily overpower Daniel and simply let him take it away. Even then, if the surprise attack cames from the front. But this Daniel really had a diametrically knife in his hand, with which he knew to defend himself. Even though he came a little sluggishly, it didn’t mean long that he was easy to pack and could, like an eel, get out of their practiced grips. There was also the possibility that he had some other weapon somewhere on his body.

No. It was no different. The group around Jones had to wait until Daniel turned their backs on them and they could attack him from a short distance. 

 

As the light disappeared, Jones cautiously peered around the corner and could only make a black silhouette at the other end, which was about to leave the corridor. After stepping back to the crossed and brightly lit corridor, Daniel suddenly turned half a turn and broke the eternal darkness in half with his flashlight. But Jones was still able to pulled his head back.

While Jones was staring into the darkness, he had to stand in any case that this Daniel was quite sleepy. The name of his new partner, it really hit the eye. He had, in fact, something of a fox. He even looked at this boy as a certain kind of the teumessian fox. A fabulous creature, whichs according to legend was a huge man-eating fox and couldn’t be caught. Although this designation would be more appropriate, Jones now made it especially the task to put this fox into the building and to lock it at all times. No one, but also no one really had the right to lead him so badly and to stand as an incompetent idiot. ...Especially not from a half-shirt, as he had originally titled it.

As soon as the biting light from Daniel was capped, Jones took a quick look around the corner and could just see that he had lost the interest in their hiding-place game and was thus looking at the vastness. Whereupon he gaves Mark and Jason, more than a whisper, the sign to move forward again. In record time, they managed to get back to where they were a few minutes ago. Staying still in the darkness, Jones let himself be led to a staring look and just got as Daniel disappeared into the darkened room. When Jones was sure that their small and unpredictable opponent wouldn’t be able to appear so quickly, he instructed his two colleagues with a simple gesture to re-enter the light-lit corridor. Step by step, they came closer and closer to their apparent goal, and when they stood in front of this room, a dull light flashed through them, which probably proceeded from several candles. What gave the cold room a more than just tense atmosphere of discomforted. 

Although they couldn’t give the room a deeper look, one felt instantly the feeling that something terrible will happen behind these walls. Who knows, maybe it had already happened.

With the breath held and his weapon pulled, the three took a small step towards the threshold, and Jones let his two fellow soldiers know silently that their surprise attack should take place in the next seconds. Jason and Mark nodded to him for a moment. After Jones had counted with his fingers and completely mute up to three, they finally stormed as if on command in the sparsely lit room.


	13. It’s Your Chance Now To Stand Up And Fight

**Somewhere in London - 23:50 hrs**

After an eternity, Robbie and Oliver were finally able to turn away their frozen eyes from the contents of the wardrobe. No one really expected that.

From a purely external point of view, this Daniel might have been a neat neighbor and a nice young man, but there were more than deep abysses inside. Behind his act was a gigantic plan that he had really refined to the smallest detail. The presumption that Daniel had had to know the corpse body personally, confirmed itself. What he hoped for from the theft of this one corpse, Robbie let more than an icy chill run over his back.  
Despite this sudden and much too hot one hundred and eighty degree turn, they now had to keep a cool head and smother every emerging panic in the bud. As policemen, they could not afford it, as soon as something became boiling, to let all the horses go through.

To all the excess, now also ran the time against them. If they did not leave the apartment quickly and immediately saw the industrial area, another person could lose his/her life.

 

While Robbie thanked Mrs. Ferres for her help, Oliver was desperately trying to contact the group around Jones, to be extremely cautious and to do nothing unthinking. But to his displeasure, he heard from all three the same mechanical voice that the desired participant was not available at the time.

_Crap._

With the thought that they were no longer able to make it in time, and then saw a picture of horror they hurried toward the exit and left the apartment complex within the next minute.   
While they were still on their way to the industrial area, a special team of command teams was called for further support. Perhaps this was a bit exaggerated for a single person who came over like a half-shirt, but Robbie just didn’t want to leave it to chance and give it a certain note of caution. The whole thing was too hot for him. For if something went wrong, he would certainly want to reproach himself forever. Allegations, that he had not shown enough use in this case. 

 

After a few hardly worth mentioning minutes, the small group arrived at this one vacant building, looking at it more than critically from the car. Seen from the outside, the box looked like a normal fiddle, which had long since passed its sparkle. Because of the rather less obvious perception of the building, this place was not in itself a bad hideout for violent crimes.

"Should we wait for the arrival of the boys from the special task force team or even start an attempt to go in?" Oliver could finally ask more than just tense into the round.  
"If you ask me, we should take the risk. To sit around here silently and to do nothing is against my nature, and besides …every second counts." Howard was of the opinion that they shouldn’t wait a second for the special team command team and spoke with it, an extremely important point.  
While Robbie grabbed his holster and ripped out the weapon in it, he let the two commissars knows that there was nothing left for them: "Howard’s right. …We're going in!"

Howard and Oliver nodded silently to him and then also pulled their weapons. With this the three armed themselves from the car and tried to get the distance between themselves and the warehouse in wind ropes. As they entered the main entrance, their attention was immediately drawn to a bright light at the other end, where a door was apparently only ajar, leaving a lonely and cold beam of light. Taken by this light, they once ran across the whole hall, and then, after a short delay, entered the light-lit corridors with the utmost caution.

 

With armored weapons, Howard, Oliver, and Robbie went down the various corridors until they found not even in a minute a darkened room and where this protesting voice was heard. Voices wich belonged to Jason and Mark. There was no doubt. Apparently they came too late. Just as it sounded, Daniel had therefore had his crime already put into action. Robbie was about to talk to Howard and Oliver tonelessly and intervene in the events when he suddenly felt a strange hand on one of his shoulders. Shocked, the chief of the detective gave up half a pirouette and was able to control himself, not to shout loudly. For a short moment, he seriously thought that these were any, unknown, and restrained accomplices of this Daniel. At the closer look of the black-dressed men before him, where on their bulletproof waistcoat was written in large and fat letters SWAT, this fear was however completely unfounded. On the sign of their instructors that they took over from now, Robbie visibly relieved a step to the side and thus made room for the complete special command team. The attack was finally launched with a simple gesture. 

 

Then everything happened very quickly. No sooner had the special task force team stormed into the room to take this one was also given a shot. Which, it still had to be heard in the nearest and adjacent company premises. At the direct sight of what was happening in front of their eyes, they were forced to act accordingly. In the millisecond before the Special Operations Team came into the room, Daniel was able to reach for a hidden weapon and aim at the person lying on the ground in front of him. Whereupon this one shot also fell. While the captured group was sitting around Jones in a corner, watching the events, the fired bullet created a swath of total destruction, leaving a bleeding wound. Daniel, who had been hit by the bullet, fell to the ground as a result of the immense force, and because of the injury inflicted, the weapon, which had been unarmed, slipped out of his hand and fell onto the cold stone floor where a shot was fired shortly thereafter. 

While the deafening shot in all of the auditory canal had left a terrible echo, some of the men in Black instantly took advantage of the hour and overpowered Daniel by placing him in the belly with more than a rough hand and handcuffing him. Thus his deeds found a temporary end. For which he had to sit in prison for several years.

 

One of his deeds was not far from him and still brightly lit in all the colors of the world. It was a picture of what you did not really see every day. Although the special command team, as well as the commissars had already seen in their previous runways some but this here the barrel hit the ground. The missing corpse was actually used to take another life in his name. So he held a large knife, whichs Daniel obviously had pressed into his hand and then had to ram into the free upper body of a man in the chest. Although a lot of blood leaked out of the said stitch, the knife slowed down the blood loss. But with every minute, if not even seconds passed, it would look different. Just because the other fired bullet had shot through the left upper arm, leaving behind a quite proper pool laugh in a very short time.

This poor fellow was also lying on the cold stone floor with his naked skin, which was also connected to his eyes and was tied to the wrists, and thus was completely defenseless against the ice colds prevailing here. To get rid of him from his hopeless situation, Robbie instantly hurried along with Howard and Oliver to that person. While Oliver took care of their release from the shackles, Howard immediately felt for a hopefully available pulse.

"He is still alive! ...But if he doesn’t get medical help soon, any effort might be too late." Howard let all those present know that the condition of the man was not very good.  
"The doctor has already been informed and should be on his way here." Suddenly, the information from one of the guys from the special squad team, who was just about to get rid of the shackles around Jason, Mark and Jones, was suddenly told who had already been informed.  
Although Robbie knew that the person in front of him was not conscious, he let him know with a hoarse voice that everything will be all right: "Did you hear that? The doctor is on the road. Everything will be all right again. The nightmare has finally come to an end. Come on. Hold on to something else. You just have to. ...Please Gaz!"

 

God. In what a monstrous story had Gary slipped there? The fact that the suspended Chief of Crime had already been in the catch of a madman for some time and thus his sudden disappearance was declared had really no one considered. Why should anyone? There was no evidence that Daniel Andrews had anything to do with it. Only when they were in his apartment and looked at this one cabinet, which was a kind of shrine, was it more than just made clear to Daniel what it really was. Retribution.

He could and wanted to leave a revenge action that hadn’t been brought to an end.

 

While Robbie was talking to Gary, he freed him in the same breath from the black eye bandage, which was clearly too tight for him. As soon as he had pushed it up to his forehead, Robbie was already looking into an ashen face, which was more than visibly drawn from the last days and the hardships inflicted upon him. All the otherwise gentle facial features had been deeply indented, and the reddish strip around his eyes, which was caused by the bandage, also spoke volumes that Gary had apparently suffered the purest hell. What was also recognized by the numerous hematomas distributed throughout his body. Who knows what this Daniel had done to him. Robbie's fantasies were the most acrobatic stunts, as they had been for a long time, and left him with no clear idea. 

For fear that the emergency doctor could not arrive here in time Robbie took his icy cold hand in his and was frightened about how cold this was now. His concern for the more than just taken-on Gary grew steadily immeasurably and prayed to God that he had to survive this. But with every second that went the smaller was accordingly his survival. 

 

After two or three endless minutes, the longtime medical team arrived at last and went straight to the side of Gary, whereupon the chief of the detective was somewhat reluctant to make room for them. One of the paramedics went directly to Gary's knees and groped for his pulse. This could only inform his colleagues, that it was more than bad for Gary and that he had to go to the hospital on the fastest way. Without losing a word about the further events, since it was part of the everyday routine of a medical doctor, Gary was stabilized and then fixed on a wheeled stretcher, where it then went straight through the middle and they took him as quickly as possible to the ambulance. Of course, this also applied to the departed corpse, which should once again be stored professionally.

As soon as both were shipped in the ambulance, one of the nurses went straight to the nearest hospital with blue light and sirens. 

 

Since this whole scenario was handled within a few minutes, Robbie could only look after the whole with mixed feelings. All his hopes were now that it was not too late for Gary. Although he knew about Gary's inner strength, but some time came to his or her limits and so were his hopeful thoughts that Gary had not yet reached them. Even if he has been physically, and mentally demanded in the last time. ...But the hope dies last.

As Gary moved in one direction, the commissioners immediately took the arrested Daniel, who had been treated by a paramedic on the shoulder a few minutes ago, on the shoulder, as a result of a grapple, and went with him in the opposite direction. Back to the presidium. In spite of the current late hour, they were only on the case of Daniel Andrews as fast as possible to the file and thus also ultimately bring into the investigation detention. 

 

On the way back, the commissaries didn’t speak a word to each other. Which’s was also perfectly understandable. Really everyone thought about how it went now. Robbie, Mark, Howard, Jason and Oliver were, of course, purely thoughtful at Gary and were hoping that he would somehow survive the executed attack on him. Jones, who didn’t even know Gary, remembered more about why he had changed his work area from today to tomorrow. On his last assignment, where he had worked for a special mission command team, he had to watch as one of his team had found a much too early death ...and that was also his very best friend. From then on he wanted to renounce the special mission command and change everything fundamentally. Starting with his behavior towards all the possible colleagues with whom he then had to deal in the future, to the actual job, where there were no such incidents.

...And Daniel? He thought only of the imminent inquiry and, of course, the question of how the criminal police could get behind his more than just brilliant and well-designed plan. He had really thought of everything to divert suspicion of himselfes and leave some trace behind. So how was it possible that his revengeful retribution be thwarted? That was now completely no matter. His only hope was that Gary Barlow might be succumbing to his injuries. If he had to go to jail then his deed, at least in his eyes, should find a just end.


	14. See The Future Coming To You

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Okay. Here's the last chapter. I hope you had liked the little thriller.

**02.11.20XX - Presidium - 00:37 hrs**

After an endless ride and finally arrived at the presidency, Daniel was immediately led into the interrogation room, which was directly connected to the office of Robbie and Jones. In this one room, the thoughtful Daniel took a seat at the other end of a long table and had to explain his actions. But at first he remained rather mute. Why should he explain great? He had nothing to lose anyway. Daniel knew only too well that he would immigrate to jail for several years, if not long. So what brought him this? Making a confession was a dead time. Even if, he would showed reget. 

 

But Jones had so much pressure on him that he finally gave in and so he told them what the commissioners already knew by the identity of the vanished corpse. After being handed over by a couple of foster families just like a joint, Daniel eventually found one where he had really got the chance to finally lead a real and regular life. In this one foster family, he also quickly became friends with his son, whom he soon saw as his real brother. His name?

Mike Reynolds!

This was still very much in the minds of the commissioners, as he had already tried to destroy Gary Barlow's detective life ever since a year or two ago. In his opinion, Gary Barlow was guilty of his father's taking his life. In a police operation, where Gary had been present, about twelve or thirteen years ago, a bank robber was placed at home and somehow and more than desperately escaped from an arrest at that time, the father turned completely and even took his own and only son as a hostage. After nearly eleven years, Mike Gary had met again at a football game of Arsenal London against Liverpool, and from then on, he had devised a plan of revenge as he could break him forever. What he had done almost. Only through the tireless and hard use of Robbie and, of course, the other commissioners, who were involved in it, could just be prevented. Because of murder and false suspicion, Mike finally got a prison sentence on lifetime. 

But with this condemnation, Mike couldn’t really cope and so he made his last desperation, as his father had once done, to take his own life. About two or three weeks ago, his corpse was found hanging in his prison cell. This whole series of events had then led to another person appearing on the scene, which no one had expected, and he was no other than Daniel. 

 

Because Daniel loved Mike, he had just been looking for Gary Barlow and avenged himself in Mike's and, of course, his own name. If he and his colleagues had not stormed the house several years ago, Mike's father and Mike himself would still be alive today. To put an end to his real deed, Daniel had even taken the corpse of his brother out of the funeral home. So that he together with him, as a common act, Gary once and for all to bring under the earth. With the knowledge that he wouldn’t easily get to Gary, he had come up with a devilish genius plan. The whole thing started with the burglary at Johnson’s jewelers, where he had laid a wrong track and manipulated a video tape so perfectly, that one had to look at Gary as the only true perpetrator and that nobody had any doubt in his guilt. Even Gary was supposed to believe in his own fault and to get that, Daniel had come up with a very special trick for it. One night, when he'd gone to hide the stolen property, he had a visit to the sleeping Chief Inspectorate, giving him a light narcotic so he could see the following action as a kind of dream. After this narcotic had unfolded, Gary's eyes were carefully opened and fixed with two special clamps, where his gaze was fixed to the ceiling. Using a small projector, he then showed Gary the manipulated video as he unscrewed the jeweler's shop! A very important stone in a long Dominore series was thus fundamentally set up and should Gary ever more in the shoot out. 

Hardly had the first domino fallen, Gary was from then on Daniel's sticky fingers and from which he no longer came free again. With that finally led one to the other. Even the incident in the pub had been largely planned. For which Daniel even arranged a few people and paid them for a wrong game accordingly. Because of this, Gary was in the conflict with himself and he would visit the nearest pub, which had already opened at this time of day, was more than foreseeable for Daniel. The story about the bartender was not threaded by Daniel, which meant for Gary that he had to be responsible for the bodily injury and material damage in any case.

After this nerve-racking and following visit to this one pub, where Gary was supposed to believe that he had a human life on his conscience, Daniel only had to wait, just take it off and then disappear from the scene. The rest was then history.

To the last question, why he had killed the holder of the funeral home, Daniel merely replied that this wasn’t planned. The owner simply interfered with him in his actions and there he had react from the affect. He didn’t want to have any witnesses for his deed, and so he had no choice but to bring him around the corner and put him in the coffin, which was actually meant for Mike.

 

Because of this more than just incredible story, Daniel was of course imprisoned, where he would then be presented several hours later to the detainee and then decided how long he had to resign his sentence. Ultimately, Daniel was convicted of burglary with theft, incitement to false suspicion, deliberate killing, disturbance of the funeral and attempted murder with a lifetime imprisonment. 

All that remains to be said is that Gary Barlow had survived the murder attempt and was slowly on the way to recovery after initial critical moments. After he had brought his statement, also to the record, a fine for the material damage and bodily injury was imposed on him. Whichs of course he followed. 

Despite all these more than annoying and memorable events that Gary had to live in his life so far, he didn’t let himself be displaced after his hospital stay, even though he had been offered him. Gary didn’t want to be spared either by a dead Mike Reynolds, nor by a Daniel Andrews, who had been imprisoned for life. In order to be able to draw a thick and definite line under this story, he went for the first time for two whole months in the well-earned holiday, where he then immediately in the direct connection again to take up the active service. 

 

Even if someone caught up with the past and was something like a prologue to a life story, that did not mean that the future must be just as dark as it once began. No. His life was to be carried forward by the future, not by the past. 

 

**END**


End file.
